Gov. Bill Ritter joined several other governors Wednesday calling on Congress to expand a national health insurance program for kids and pregnant women.

Federal lawmakers and the White House are deadlocked over the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which in Colorado covers 56,000 kids whose families don’t qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford health insurance.

The program will expire at the end of September without reauthorization from Congress.

“Far too many kids in Colorado and across the nation are uninsured and do not receive the care they need, but things could soon get even worse,” Ritter said during a news conference. “We have to think in terms of America’s kids.”

President Bush is proposing a $5 billion expansion of the program during the next five years. But a bill from Sen. Ken Salazar calls for a $35 billion increase, and House legislation from fellow Colorado Democrat Rep. Diana DeGette includes a $50 billion increase.

Federal lawmakers are expected to work on a compromise when they return next month.

Ritter criticized the president’s proposal as too stingy – not accounting for medical inflation and limiting states’ ability to insure more kids.

The Bush administration wants to limit eligibility to 250 percent of the federal poverty level for a family of four, ensuring the program targets low-income families. States could raise the threshold above 250 percent only if they have enrolled 95 percent of children below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

Colorado’s limit is 205 percent, slightly more than $41,000 for a family of four.

About 55,000 kids from poor, working families in Colorado qualify for the state insurance program but are not on the rolls.

Raising Colorado’s threshold to reach more families is among the options under consideration by the state’s 208 Commission, a group created by the legislature last year to develop health-care reform ideas.

The Colorado Health Foundation wants enough funding – the federal government pays $2 for every dollar the state chips in – to cover all eligible families in the state, said program officer Lorez Meinhold.

“The fact that we would put politics over children’s health is disappointing,” she said.

The governor and other state and health officials were surrounded by preschool children on the steps of the Capitol as Exempla Healthcare president Jeff Selberg railed against possible inaction in Washington.

“The consequences would be more pain,” he said. “To let that happen is simply unconscionable.”

Jennifer Brown is an investigative reporter for The Denver Post, where she has worked since 2005. She has written about the child welfare system, mental health, education and politics. She previously worked for The Associated Press, The Tyler Morning Telegraph in Texas, and the Hungry Horse News in Montana.

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